N&W Bicentennial celebration equipment

[NW Mailing List]

I was searching for pictures of N&W 1580 and it lead me to a page on the NWHS archives that included photos of the SD45 1776, a C18 caboose 1776, a H12 hopper 1776 and a road trailer NWZ 1776. 

I understand that the N&W computer probably tracked cars differently than locomotives, but I wonder how it differentiated the hopper and the caboose with the same reporting mark and number. The trailer had the special NWZ reporting mark so that wouldn't be an issue. I'm sure the class of the equipment made it unique in the database but would people entering transactions have to know the class?  Were the cabs tracked separately as well in the computer? 

Howard Adkins